Nachdem die Völker der Welt vierhundert Jahre lang in ihren magischen Festungen dem Eindringen der Dämonen getrotzt haben, öffnen sich nun wieder die Pforten ihrer selbstgewählten Gefängnisse. Doch die Bewohner Barsaives müssen feststellen, dass ihre Welt vollständig verwüstet wurde und ihre alten Feinde immer noch gegenwärtig sind. Es liegt am Zwergenkönigreich von Throal, dem grausamen Theranischen Imperium und den verschlagenen Dämonen die Stirn zu bieten.
J'role ist ein junger Mann, der unter dem schrecklichen Fluch leidet, unfreiwilliger Wirt für einen jener Dämonen zu sein, die seit Jahrhunderten die Erde verwüsten. Als ihm ein Dieb-Adept begegnet, der Ork Garlthik Einauge, erliegt er dem Lockruf des Abenteuers und begleitet den Ork. Doch verfolgt von mächtigen Feinden, besessen von seinem Dämon und dem verführerischen Versprechen eines magischen Rings, entdeckt J'role sehr bald, dass es Schlimmeres gibt, als sein Leben in einem langweiligen Dorf zu fristen ...
Despite the fact that it took me something like 2 years to reread this book, I really do live the Earthdawn world. It never really got a fair shot.
This particular book is fairly slow moving. The plot drags on and feels like the author was given a list of people/locales to make sure to introduce the reader to the Earthdawn universe. We didn't need to visit the Bloodwood AND Throal AND the Serpent River AND Parlainth.
Since I already own the 6 books in the series, I'll keep reading them. Hopefully book 2 will go a little faster.
If you're a fantasy nut, you're going to enjoy this. It's not amazing, not particularly inspired, but it's a pleasant little stroll through a made up world. It's very fast paced, and easy to pick up for 20 minutes at a time. The setting is definitely the highlight.
It's pretty average for RPG fiction. The main antagonist was defeated too quickly, and it started to feel more like a travelogue more than a story at some points. Despite that, I still really enjoy the world of Earthdawn, and this took me on a little tour of it.
This is an early child of 90’s fantasy, more in league with dark fantasy tropes than with heroic one. The main character is different abled (mute) and it shows through the book. There is hope and treason aplenty. And there is RPG narrative structure theoughout the book: focus on some scenes, others passed along quite rapidly. The book also is a big tour through the setting, and a lot of important characters appear without reason or importante, just to showing off. But you can grasp all the setting’s beauty in one read. So, this stands halfway between a good RPG novel, but too much on the RPG than good novel side.
A book I've wanted to read for a very long time, as a fan of Earthdawn. I liked it, it greatly discribed the universe, the magic, and the main characters are well thought and written. But I'm not sure it can pass to readers who don't know the RPG.
Like the Shadowrun world, Earthdawn takes fantasy in a different and more sinister direction. Instead of a near future, however, there is an ancient past where magic is a way of life. The dark grittiness that one would expect from the Shadowrun setting remains, and it can be hard to say who is truly virtuous.
This is one book of a really good triology. What I like at the Erathdawn world is the behaivour of the demons. This triology describes the demons in the art of the Earthdawm manner.